world. europe follows asia higher after a pop on wall street. president obama and congress make positive comments about avoiding the fiscal cliff. and uk banks brace for possible new rules on capital and lending as bank of england governor mervyn king prepares to unveil his financial stakt reporbility. and the search is on on for the winners of the pow ball ticket as two tickets matched all the numbers in the $580 million drawing. we're getting a lot of green on the heat map and not a lot of red. sur enough, the stoxx 600 is up 0.8%. we can take a look in at the bourses and almost a mirror image of yesterday. ibex 35 adding 1.6%, cac 40 up more than 1%. the dax adding 0.8%. and we just got german unemployment figures. plus the foot city 100 up 0.8% this morning. so pretty much a strong session across the board. again, following what we saw in the u.s. yesterday. take a look at the bond wall here of course we have an italian auction coming up later and italy's ten year, below 4.5% this morning. so price rising. that yield falling. spain also benefiting. that yield down to 5.2%. b

. they admitted that there has to be some revenue. meanwhile the obama team led by secretary geithner are comfortable with at least 2:1 what they would call entitlement cuts. so there was a lot of ground for a deal. unfortunately, i think the threats from some democratic leaders that maybe it's okay to go over the fiscal cliff, i'm worried some actually believe that and that's one thing that scares me. i think there's a deal on the table, get a few years deal, it's only if -- obviously the republican caucus could do something stupid, but owes otherwise my main word is the dems decide they want to play for a long term deal that it all has to be resolved right now and it's worth the risk and i don't think it's worth the risk. >> adam, always good to see you. thank you very much indeed. we move on, stay in the united states, strike at the port of los angeles long beach is entering its seventh day and some analysts fear it could cost the u.s. economy $1 billion a day. it means lost business for truckers and others who rely on the port for their livelihood. combined they are the nation's b

$10.8 billion stimulus package. tokyo stocks end the week at a seven month high. plus president obama will take his case for tax hikes on the wealthy to the american people today as the war of words between democrats and republicans over the fiscal cliff heats up. >>> the trading session sitting roughly flat on the stoxx 600. decliners and advancers about even this morning. markets are trying to digest these comments from draghi. first, let's take a look at the bourses. s it is the last trading day of the month. just one left to go in this extraordinary 2012. ibex 35 appropriately enough is ending in the red today. other indexes showing a little bit of a rise here. we've seen spanish and italian debt come in sharply and the yields falling today. we saw the euro-dollar adding almost 0.3%s this morning. dollar-yen up two thirds of a percent in the light of perhaps japan may be getting moring a yes, sir sif on st ing a grefs saggressive on stim. let's get over to deidre wang morr morris. >> yes, the japanese data was good, but also the economy still stuck in deflation. hang seng down hal

president obama is pushing forward his tax for the wealthy agenda. george osbourne is going to update today. the chancellor will have his work cut out to meet his target of eradicating the federal deficit by 2015 as well as securing a fall to gdp ratio. also expected further pressure with a cut to its growth forecast. steve is braving rather inclement british winter weather outside the houses of parliament. >> lovely. >> i know you like it. how much is it going to be raining on george osbourne's parade? >> it's going to rain on his parade. you just nailed it, ross. three things which are going to come up today, which he has very little control over. one is that obr reckoning on the uk economy. thought only back in march it was going to grow -- pain a negative growth for the year. next year they thought it was going to be 2% growth. it's probably only going to be 1%. in terms of those two targets you mentioned, eradicating the structural deficit in a five-year period, that's going to have another couple of years. >> right. now, there we go. you can see jim there in egypt. i wonder whet

year end fiscal cliff. >>> and president obama is meeting with a group u.s. governors today around 10:00 a.m. eastern. it includes jack markell, mary fallon, scott walker. the governors will discuss how the fiscal cliff will impact their states and possible solutions. it's also expected to meet with house republicans, as well, this week. >>> and oracle is amongst the latest of speeding up their dividend pay outs to avoid possible tax hikes because of the fiscal cliff. they will pay dividends a total of 18 cents a share for the next three quarters. larry ellison didn't take part in the decision, but he will benefit. he own as 23% stake in the company, so he'll receive around $198 million. yes, you heard it right. oracle stock down 0.8% despite that in frankfurt. still to come, interest rates in australia are moving down. down under. find out what central bank is worried about when we come back. >>> australia central bank held its rate setting meeting. matthew taylor has the details. >> the market had been pricing in a 25 basis point rate cut and the reserve bank delivered with an early

new week long silence as that deadline looms. president obama and boehner spoke by phone on wednesday. they promised to renew the negotiations. several top executives have also weighed in on thursday. >> there's been some movement. everybody realizes there has to be a revenue component, spend component, entitlement reform component. >> patrick, where does it hang on now for you? clearly the president last decided there has to be tax rises for the wealthy. if the democratic side can come up with entitlement cuts, maybe we get a deal. >> i think this is pure political theater. this is a situation that was created 18 months ago in order for the politicians to get by the election. now they've done so. we still confront the same fiscal unsustainability here in the united states that's been evident to everybody for the the past five, six years. what we all recognize is we need more revenue, we needless spending, it's really a matter of a couple of adults getting in a room and figuring out how to resolve this temporary problem that they've created with an eye toward the long term o

. sensex gained 0.6% today. >> john boehner and president obama speaking by phone, but no announcement of any upcoming face to face budget talks. earlier the president told the business round table that a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff could be reached quickly if republicans drop their opposition to raising tax rates on the wealthy. and in an interview on cnbc, timothy geithner says the gop is making a little bit of practice, but the white house is absolutely ready to go over the cliff if tax rates on the top 2% don't rise. >> our obligation is first do no harl. we need to lift that threat over the economy. and now as part of that, we'd like to put in place as i said a carefully designed mix of reforms to put our fiscal balance in the path of sustainability. as long as there is recognition by the other side that those rates will go up, we think we can reach an agreement on the set of reforms as i said that will be good for the economy. >> republicans were quick to hit back. orrin hatch called them stunning and irresponsible, but there may be more cracks in the ranks. "wash